Excited to see “Star Wars Rebels”? Tonight, you can watch the first seven minutes of the first episode online.

Set about five years before the beginning of “Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope,” the new animated series follows the adventures of a group of heroes desperately trying to combat the all-consuming might of the Empire, the fascistic government arisen from the ashes of the Old Republic in “Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith.”

Although the story will recount the formation of the Rebel Alliance, the group that Luke Skywalker, Princess Leia and Han Solo would eventually lead to defeat the evil Empire, at the outset of the show the organization is little more than a ragtag band of aliens and a Jedi Knight in hiding, Kanan (voiced by Freddie Prinze Jr.), who engage in minor skirmishes with Imperial agents.

The video will premiere at 9 p.m. Pacific time.

“It’s the origin story of the Rebel Alliance,” executive producer Simon Kinberg told fans at San Diego’s Comic-Con International last month, comparing “Star Wars Rebels” to a story of the American Revolution. “They’re rebels who don’t imagine they’ll be part of a larger organization one day.”

The series, overseen by supervising director and executive producer Dave Filoni, whose work on “The Clone Wars” has made him well known in “Star Wars” fan circles, will premiere on the Disney Channel in October before it shifts to Disney XD for the rest of the episodes.

In addition to Prinze Jr., the “Star Wars Rebels” voice cast includes Steve Blum, Taylor Gray, Vanessa Marshall and David Oyelowo, who will play Agent Kallus, the so-called “Rebel hunter” who works for the Imperial Security Bureau and is the right-hand man to the lead bad guy, the imposing, villainous Inquisitor.